For every make and model of vehicle there are numerous tuning houses building their reputation on that one particular brand. Among these thousands of tuners worldwide there are but a handful that would be considered the “elite” few. When you talk about tuning Honda motor vehicles, there are very few that come close to Yasuji Hirano and his company TOP FUEL.

Since 1984 Top Fuel have been at the very forefront of parts development and tuning for Honda vehicles but Hirano-sans history with Honda vehicles stretches way back to the seventies before EFI was even thought of. As well as one of the most impressive Honda tuning shops in the world Hirano-san is the brains behind the Zero-1000 range of tuning products but we can tell you his real passion is racing. And time attack racing stands right at the top of that list.

You see for several years Top Fuel have been quietly tinkering away on their ZERO-1000 carbon fibre S2000 that, up until a couple of years ago held the Tsukuba FR lap record with a time of 55.3 seconds driven by Nob Tanaguchi back in 2008.

With over 700 horsepower, a trick sequential gearbox and extremely well sorted chassis this car has long been our radar to coerce to come to World Time Attack but it was not until December 2011 that Hirano-san made the trip up to Tsukuba circuit to meet with us and finally commit to come to Australia. And then he dropped the bombshell. “We will completely rebuild this car because we want to win!”

It was not long after this that world renowned aero ace Akihiro Nakajima turned up at the Top Fuel workshop in the Mie prefecture and a plan was hatched to rebuild the TOP FUEL ADVAN S2000RR as a collaborative venture. So when you combine the ability of one of the world’s top Honda tuners with the experience of one of the brains trust behind the Cyber Evo one can only wonder what they have in store for what was already an extremely formidable car!

photo courtesy Richard Fong DSPORT magazine USA

So now with the mission set, and the team renamed TEAM TOP FUEL with VOLTEX, Nakijima-san set about designing a new aero package that would push the S2000RR well past anything it has previously been capable of. With two years of experience at Eastern Creek and both times taking the winning trophy back to Japan, you can rest assured that the prospect of winning this event outright is definitely not out of the question for this team.

With the car stripped to a bare shell the rebuild began in earnest with the emphasis on weight reduction under the direction of Top Fuel senior engineer Yuya Nakagawa. With a weight of 1030kg previously it would be fair to assume this will now drop under 1000kg and an already refined engine package will be developed even further.

The rest of the car is all top shelf with fully adjustable arms and handmade ZEAL coilovers. The brakes are by Endless and the car will now sit over fat Advan TC rims with Yokohama Advan 295/30/18 rubber. The gearbox is a HKS 6 speed sequential and the clutch is an OS Giken 3 plate with an OS Giken diff rounding out the rear.

There is no doubt Honda fans around the world will keeping a close eye on this car when it rolls out of the container in August and while they have not told us who will be driving yet, it would be fair to assume the driver, like everything else on this car, will be very very special!